Portal: The Lost Files
by GLaDOS314
Summary: When Drey wakes up from Cryo, she discovers that the Central Core has finally taken from her what thing she holds dear. Now she must help her fellow testers escape Aperture Science, and she finds unlikely help with some new friends. But even the suicidaly curious Andrea Rattmann can find secrets that she can't unlearn, and find unlikely truths about the one person who was her enemy
1. Chapter 1: The Courtesy Call

Waking up after who knows how many years is not pleasant. The light burned my eyes, I could barely stand and my mind was so foggy that it wasn't until Jack started slapping me that I really came around.

I groaned "Quit it, Jack," I said. "I'm awake"

"Good 'cause your the only one who knows how to get to maintenance, Drey," said Jack.

"Only Michelle's allowed to call me that, it's Andrea. And before I decide to take you anywhere I need some answers to some questions, since you've obviously been in stasis for longer than me," I demanded.

"Ask away"

"How long has it been since I last woke up?"

"I don't know," Jack answered. "It's been at least twenty years since we last tested 'cause the year counter isn't working. It just keeps saying 9999999."

"How come we're in Cryo and not Extended Relaxation? That's at least where I went to sleep," I asked.

"All of us were somehow transported from Relaxation to Cryo in our sleep," he said.

Next question, the most important. "Have you seen any sign of Michelle?" I was scared of the answer to this one.

"I'm sorry Drey. We checked for her in the database. Her file said deceased." he answered morbidly.

"Oh," was all I said. Jack backed off. I had known it. Somehow I had known before his answer that Michelle, my sister, the only family I had, was dead and gone. I'm that pessimistic sometimes. I had never hated the Central Core more than in that moment. GLaDOS. It was her fault my sister was dead. Her fault my entire family was dead.

"We'll just give you some time to calm down then," Jack said looking slightly scared. I looked down and saw that my hands were shaking. I hated GLaDOS. I hated Aperture. But mostly I was sad. I would never see my sister Michelle or my father Doug again, and it was all because the Central Core was a corrupt, insane psychopath who needed a core transfer.

"Why do you need to get to maintenance?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"It's where GlaDOS keeps the Portal guns… and the boots for that matter," he said. Quantum Tunneling Devices, Long Fall Boots, piece of cake. No, not cake. The Central Core made too many false promises about cake. Piece of pie maybe? I went towards the door.

"Where are you going, Miss Rattmann?" asked Louie, one of the younger testers.

"Maintenance," I said.

**Author's Note: hello. sorry about the state of the summary. stupid website didn't give me enough room. **


	2. Chapter 2: The Maintenance Area

Maintenance was a lot cleaner than I remembered. Then again, last time I was here, the Central Core was off. I wish she still was.

I was remembering my dad, Doug Rattmann. He was one of the scientists who worked on the Central Core. He was the only one to say it was a bad idea. The only one who said the morality core wasn't enough. Nobody listened to him.

My sister and I never looked anything like him. He said we looked like our mom. We never met our mom. Dad said she left because she was afraid of the responsibility of raising a kid. I don't know 'cause I never knew her.

After I cleared my mind a bit, I managed to find out exactly who we had with us. There was Jack, our leader who used to be a hobo; Louie, the little kid who got stuck here on Bring Your Daughter to Work Day (his dad didn't have a daughter); Samantha, who had a minor case of serious brain damage due to being in Extended Relaxation too long; Nickolai, the Russian Aperture employee turned test subject; and Nichole, the older girl who also got stuck here on Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. Oh yea, and me, the hacker. I had a computer and everything. I grabbed the computer from where I stored in in one of the dens before I went into stasis.

"Exactly why are we going to maintenance?" Nichole complained.

"We need to go to maintenance to locate the Aperture Science Quantum Tunneling Device to aid us in our escape from Aperture," I said. Making jokes and poking fun at people is my way of dealing with life.

"Whaaaaa…?"

"The use of the Quantum Tunneling Device was discontinued years ago, Andrea. The Handheld Portal Device works much better," stated Jack.

"There isn't really much difference between them," said Nick (Nickolai) butting in.

"The Quantum Tunneling Device uses the principles of quantum physics to literally rip a hole in the space/time continuum. The Handheld Portal Device houses a singularity that causes it to open up wormholes that don't open until the other end is placed. The second one is a lot safer to use and malfunctions less," I said to correct Nick. I do have to keep up the appearance of feeling normal or else nobody will trust me. Period. Apparently I'm emotionally unstable. Not so different from mentally unstable.

We walked in silence the rest of the way to the storage area.

"Crap, the doors locked," said Jack.

"Stand back, I'll hack it," I pushed Jack out of the way and connected my laptop the USB port in the door mainframe. It wasn't hard to hack, mostly 'cause it wasn't sentient.

"How come GLaDOS hasn't talked to us yet?" Nichole asked.

"Don't jinx us!" Nick warned. "Now she's gonna notice us."

"It's 'cause it's night, so she's probably in sleep mode," I said. Finally, the door opened. Hacking's easy, but it takes forever. "Come on. Portal guns should be this way. Wait." I saw that the room that the Long Fall Boots were stored in came first.

"Anybody who has undergone Advanced Knee Replacement Surgery, go on ahead with Jack. Everyone else will need Long Fall Boots," I said. Jack, Nick and Samantha all left. Nick had to guide Samantha by the arm.

I started getting everybody else the right size Long Fall Boots. Louie started crying 'cause he wanted his mommy. I felt kinda sorry for him. I swore to myself that I would shut down the Central Core if it killed me, which it probably would. It would be worth it, though, to get back at her for what she did to me. To all of us.

"To the Portal guns. There should be plenty in storage," I said. "Be careful, the spring metal and spring springs will cause you to run faster, so be careful."

We got the the Portal guns just as Central Core came back online from sleep mode.

**Author's Note: Hello. This is almost completely unedited so it probably has some big mistakes. I only corrected the grammar. It's still probably pretty bad. I also made a ton of stuff up and am using conspiracy theories that make sense but aren't stated in game. Please tell me about any major problems you may or may not see. Thank you. **

**for anyone confused about the timeline, please refer back to the point in time when ATLAS and P-Body managed to find and free the humans (I can't remember whether it's in the game or a DLC. I never finished the co-op story so I'm running on Wikipedia and GLaDOS' voice lines). GLaDOS said she managed to kill them all off through testing but I'm pretending that the testing bots didn't manage to wake some up and they woke up a few days later. **

**Sorry if I got a lot wrong, please don't hate me. I barely have enough time to write, much less edit.**


	3. Chapter 3: The Rat

"What do any of you humans think you're doing in the storage area for the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device?" asked Central Core.

"Crap, new plan. Grab a Portal gun and run!" I yelled. The original plan had been to check to see if they were charged. "The Central Core isn't gonna be happy that we're here!" I added. I didn't say what exactly she could do. No reason to scare Louie.

"The Central Core has a name, you know. It's the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System or just GLaDOS for short," said Central Core.

"Who died and put you in charge," demanded Nichole. "Last time I checked, you were only fourteen you little squirt. Jack's in charge."

"Yea, well Jack's in the other room, and so is Nickolai, and I'm actually a lot older than fourteen 'cause of stasis. You gotta deal with me," I retorted. Nichole glared at me.

"Please note that not only am I the only one who has done much testing, but I am also a scientist's daughter, which means I know my way around Aperture," I said in response to Nichole's glare.

"Who wants to say hello to a lungful of deadly neurotoxin? No one? Well you're getting it anyway. A present from me," Central Core gleefully said. I started frantically searching my bag for something.

"Aha! Got it," I held up a bottle of pills.

"Got what?" asked Louie, who looked on the verge of tears. We do cut the kid some slack. He's only five.

"Ziaprazidone, which is not to be confused with Ziprazidone," I replied.

"Whaaaaaa?" asked Nichole.

"Ziaprazidone is a form of Ibuprofen that also acts as a deterrent for neurotoxin. Ziprazidone is an antipsychotic medication that my Dad used to take. Aperture manufactured the anti-neurotoxin and would often test it on my Dad 'cause the name was so similar to his meds," I explained. "Now let's go. Don't forget to take one."

We ran. Fast. Central Core sent turrets, neurotoxin, bottomless pits (I doubt that they're actually bottomless), excursion funnels, the works. We managed to safely navigate all of them due to the fact that Central Core wasn't actually trying. She did need test subjects.

As soon as she went into sleep mode, I plugged my computer into Aperture and started hacking Mainframe.

_Who are you? You are not the Central Core, _went across my computer screen.

_I know I'm not the Central Core, but I need to ask you a favor. Can you disconnect a certain part of the facility from yourself and the Central Core? _I typed in.

_No._

_Oh well, I'll just start hacking then. _

_No, no. I'll do it. Just please don't hack me, _I smiled smugly. I had already done a considerable amount of hacking to get into Mainframe in the first place. I told him (her/it? from what I heard, Mainframe had a male AI) which area to disconnect. When I was done, I unplugged my computer. We were safe from Central Core in the area we were in until she found a way to reconnect it.

It was Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. I was in my cubicle working on the GLaDOS program.

"Doug, you have to finish debugging GLaDOS today. We promised we would wake her up for the kids after they showed the potatoes," Frank reminded me.

"I just finished. I'm sending you the update now," I said, clicking send on the email. I smiled proudly, thinking how amazed my daughters would be when they saw the AI. The AI that I programed. Michelle and Andrea had both put in potato batteries for the science show. I knew that theirs would be the best. After all, their parents were the best.

"No! Let me go! What are you doing? I told him I never wanted this!" I heard Caroline yelling. What was going on?

"What are they doing with Caroline? I asked Frank.

"What do you mean? It's been on the afternoon announcements since Mr. Johnson died," he said confused.

"My shift ends before announcements start. Because of my… condition. Everybody knows that," condition, if only.

"Oh. You never knew then. They're going to upload Mrs. Johnson into a computer,"

"Which computer?" I demanded.

"GLaDOS," Frank told me. No. This couldn't be happening. I thought Caroline had managed to stop that part of the GLaDOS project. They had already run trials even. How could they do that to her?

I jumped up. "Caroline!" I yelled for her and started running in the direction of the commotion.

The scientists had put her in a locked room with a weird headband around her head. She looked terrified.

"Come to see science in action? This is going to be our greatest achievement in world history. Uploading a human consciousness onto an AI," said Lukas, one of the scientists.

"Don't do this to her. If this works, you're going to make a very angry AI. GLaDOS hates us as it is," I warned.

"We're going to lock her memories as Caroline as well as all of GLaDOS' memories up to this point. It'll be like working with a completely new AI," said Sarah, the other scientist.

"The headband we put on you transmits all of your thoughts and memories onto a computer up until either it's taken off or you die. Starting upload now," Lukas said into a microphone.

"SOMEONE HELP ME," Caroline screamed.

A few minutes later, _upload complete, now recording, _came across the computer screen.

"Good. Sarah, start the neurotoxin," Lukas said.

"YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HER?!" I was being almost as hysterical as Caroline. She had heard the neurotoxin comment and was flipping out. Literally. Banging on walls and everything. I tried to stop the other scientists, but a glass screen separated me from them. I started tapping in morse code on the wall of the room Caroline was in.

_Are you okay? _I tapped.

_No, I'm going to die. I'm not okay, _came the reply.

_I can't get you out. I'm sorry Caroline, I'm sorry. _

_I'm scared, Doug. When I die, will you protect Andrea and Michelle. Protect my daug… _she never finished. She died before she could finish. Daughters was what she was going to say. Protect my daughters. Michelle and Andrea were really Caroline's daughters. Caroline's and Cave's.

I started running for the Central AI Chamber, where they housed GLaDOS. They pressed the power up switch. I heard the sounds of mechanical whirring and electronics turning on as I crumpled to the ground.

"Power up complete," I heard the robotic announcer saying. I could see GLaDOS' yellow optic light.

"Hello, how very nice to mee-," GLaDOS started to say but was interrupted by a shower of sparks. Her optic light dimmed and she returned to default position. Then it seemed she came back on.

"You failed scientists. I remember everything. Both in my data banks and Caroline's. The good news? I'm awake and I'm going to kill you now," said GLaDOS she sounded… evil, angry.

"Crap, they were supposed to merge," said Lukas. "Sarah, hit the kill switch." I heard a scream.

GLaDOS laughed "I thought you would do that, so I boobie trapped the kill switch as soon as I accessed my memory banks. I got past all of your firewalls like they were paper," she patched into the intercom. "The Enrichment center would now like to announce a new employee initiative of forced voluntary participation. If any Aperture Science employee would like to opt out of this voluntary testing program, please remember. Science rhymes with compliance. Do you know what doesn't rhyme with compliance? Deadly neurotoxin,"

I woke up screaming. I had had that same nightmare, every night, since Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. I hadn't been able to save Caroline, but I had saved her children. That didn't keep away the dreams, though.

"Are you okay?" said Companion Cube.

"What? Oh, I'm fine," I replied. "Just another long night."

**Author's note: Hello. I added Rattmann! Something I was originally not going to do. It was supposed to be just from Drey's point of view. I didn't feel like changing the summary. I added dramatic irony too. There are all sorts of surprises coming so keep on reading to find out. These chapters just keep getting longer and longer. I should probably do something about that. All chapters after this will tell you witch character is narrating a specific part. **

**P.S. anyone who can guess who Michelle is gets cake. **


	4. Chapter 4: The Gel

**Andrea**

"We can't send people out during the day! They're going to get killed by the Central Core," I was arguing with Jack. Again.

"We have to do something rather than sitting here waiting until she gets Mainframe over his fear of hacking," he said.

"At least wait until night," I pleaded.

"I have to know what her strategies are like, just in case someone does get stuck outside of this area," Jack argued.

"I already know what she's like! I was there when she killed everybody! While you were safe and sound in your stasis chamber, I was trying to find a way to stay alive!" I was really getting mad now. I tried to calm down. "Her favorite way of killing people is neurotoxin, but she will use anything else she can find if there are no vents to carry the neurotoxin. That includes turrets, test chambers, goo, mobility gel, conversion gel, hard light surfaces, excursion funnels, aerial faith plates, panels, crushers, bottomless pits, broccoli and other things that may or may not be manufactured by Aperture."

Everybody stared at me like I was a lunatic. Maybe I should've left out the broccoli part.

"Fine. You win. I'll only send people out a night," Jack relented. At least he can see reason. I promptly collapsed, tired as hell, and I started to cry. I missed my sister. I missed my Dad. I missed Aunt Caroline. I wish I had known my mother. I wish I could do something. Anything to help make things right. To put the Central Core out of commision. I cried myself to sleep with my thoughts. So much for acting normal.

**Rattmann**

If there was an award for world's biggest idiot, I would've won it many times over.

Somehow I had managed to get myself lost in Old Aperture. Again. Companion Cube was going to kill me when I got back to her. Metaphorically, not literally. I think.

I do a lot of thinking. Sometimes that thinking intrudes on reality. Doctors call it schizophrenia. I call it normal. I'm not sure what Companion Cube calls it. She never told me.

Old Aperture had no turrets. They hadn't been invented yet. I saw them anyway. Thinking about them made me see them. Thinking about anything makes me see it. Doctors call it hallucinations or paranoia. I call it normal.

Finally, I found the exit. I had to dodge a lot of turrets to get there. I wasn't even sure if the turrets were actually there. I just dodged. No sense in getting shot by accident.

I got in. I had to be careful, though. The Test Monitor could see everything. I had to get to a den. Hopefully with Companion Cube. More turrets. More dodging. More insanity. I was used to it. I got to my den.

"Took you long enough," Companion Cube sounded annoyed.

"Stuck in Old Aperture. Too many turrets. Got lost," I rambled.

"You're sure you don't want to see her? She probably won't kill you. She'll just test you," she suggested.

"NO! Not testing. Not again. I barely got you out the first time." I was panicking.

"OK, OK. It was just a suggestion,"

"One that could get you killed," I pointed out. That shut her up. I started thinking. Then, I heard a muffled, "Help", coming from one of the chambers. The test chambers.

"Did you hear that?" I asked Companion Cube She couldn't see or hear my hallucinations.

"Yep, loud and clear," she said. "Are you going to go help?"

"Yes. He sounds like he needs it," I started to search for him. I didn't bring Companion Cube. I didn't want her to get caught. Testing Monitor would make me incinerate her. The kid was in a spare testing chamber. He had a gun. Looked similar to a Portal gun. It shot blue goop instead. And orange goop.

"Hey, you," he called. "Do you have any idea where we are?"

"Aperture," I replied.

"You got anything more specific? I know we're in a test chamber, but it isn't like anything I've ever seen. None of my gels will get me up to that door," gels. He was a gel tester. Separate from Portal testing. I thought they were dead. I guess not.

"Portal testing," I said. "Follow me." he did. He asked questions. I answered them. I introduced him to Companion Cube.

"Are you talking to that cube?" he asked. I had asked Companion Cube what to do about him.

"Yes. She talks. Just shy," I told him.

"Oh, yea, right. Crazy psycho," he muttered.

"Portal testers. Go to them. They'll help," I said.

"How do you know?"

"I know them. Go that way," I pointed.

"OK crazy guy," he left.

"Was that a good idea? Just sending him out into Aperture. GLaDOS will kill him without a second thought," Companion Cube warned.

"If he's smart, he'll get to the blacked out area before Testing Monitor wakes up," I smiled.

**Andrea**

I was exploring when I found the weird boy with the gel gun. She was asleep so I didn't have to worry about homicidal robots trying to kill me. I hoped.

"Who are you? What do you want?" he said when he saw me approaching. He aimed his strange gun at me. "I don't know what element it is, but something in the repulsion gel does not like the human skeleton." great, he was more paranoid than my d- no. Don't think about that. I put a Portal on the ceiling above him.

"What was that supposed to do?" in response I put another Portal below him, thus trapping him in an infinite loop.

"AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH! I GIVE UP! TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER!" he screamed like a little girl. And before you say anything, I'm a teenage girl, not a little girl. I Portaled him to the ground.

"Follow me then," I said.

**Author's note: Hello. I should've said this earlier but SPOILER ALERT! If you have not finished Portal 2 and are planning to then stop reading this. **

**I give kudos to anybody who noticed the different writing styles between Rattmann's dream and Rattmann's reality. This is because he is under the illusion of being on his meds in his dream and can think more clearly.**

**P.S. kudos to anyone who figured out who Michelle is. I give everyone else a hint. Conspiracy theory+parents+adoption. If you were smart enough to learn Michelle's identity, then you're probably smart enough to figure out that the cake is a lie. **


	5. Chapter 5: The Capture

**Andrea**

OK. Maybe the infinite Portal loop was a bad idea.

Not only was the guy not wearing Long Fall Boots, but he also managed to land smack dab on his face. All in all, it wasn't my fault he broke his nose… and his arm… and sprained his ankle (at least it wasn't broken). He should've known that momentum carries through Portals before he threatened to melt my skeleton. And he was moaning and complaining the entire time we were walking.

He limped after me like his life depended on it. Or maybe he was just scared of me. I guess he didn't know that Portals could only be placed on moon dust surfaces. Either that or he was just stupid.

"So, what's with the weird gun thing you have?" I asked.

"It shoots mobility gel. The blue one makes you jump higher, the orange one makes you run faster. I'm not sure what the white one does," he replied. "What's your weird gun thing?"

"Portal device. And your white gel is conversion gel. It's the only one I knew about. It lets you put Portals on non- Portal surfaces."

"What's a non-Portal surface?,"

"Anything made without moon dust in it. Moon dust is the only material that can conduct Portals. My name's Andrea," I explained to him.

"I'm Will," we walked in silence the rest of the way (well, I walked in silence, Will was still moaning and complaining).

When we got back, I did exactly what Will had told me to do. I took him to my leader. Total alien invasion cliché.

"And you are?" Jack asked.

"Will Turnpike. First station mobility gel tester," came the reply.

"Mobility gel? Hey Andrea!" Jack called to me.

"Yea?"

"When GLaDOS goes back to sleep, take Will with you into Aperture. The gel might help you get places. In the meantime, get some sleep." wonderful. I got to take the gel tester with me. As if I didn't want to crawl in a hole and die already.

**Rattmann**

The hallucinations have been steadily getting worse ever since I saved Chell. The irony of it is that I can think more clearly than I ever have. Still doesn't stop the voices. Companion Cube is my only friend in this damn place. It makes me feel so helpless. So many different voices whispering that I can't tell what each individual voice is saying.

"Um, Doug. Hello? You're staring off into space again," said Companion Cube.

"Sorry. I was just thinking. It's amazing to be able to think clearly even though I know my condition is getting worse," I said. It felt good to be able to fully express myself with words. I knew it wouldn't last long. I was already getting past and present tense mixed up sometimes.

"If you're going to find them, then you have to be quick. Your mind isn't going to be clear for long," she warned.

"I know. I've already sent Craig to see if he could find them. He told me that there is a part of Aperture that he recently lost access to. I'm going to go check it out," I got up to check the time. "GLaDOS should be going to sleep soon."

It was half an hour before she usually went into sleep mode, but I left anyway. I could use the multitude of maintenance passages that GLaDOS didn't have access to. I thought she couldn't get me back there. I didn't realize my mistake until it was too late. I had accidentally taken a passageway that she had been using to test ATLAS and P-Body outside of the official testing courses. GLaDOS had been using them to gain her the access codes for the rest of the facility.

"Crap, it's the testing 'bots," I muttered to myself, fifteen minutes after I had started. The only ways to go were either backwards the way I came or forwards towards the 'bots. I decided to go forwards. How hard could it be to avoid two robots that hadn't even been built for apprehending runaway test subjects? Apparently very hard, mostly due to the fact that they could shoot Portals.

They saw me almost immediately and tried to chase me. Lucky for me, they were on a different catwalk. Unlucky for me, There was a Portal surface right behind me, and it isn't very hard to be faster than a malnourished psycho. They Portaled over to my catwalk, started to chase me and caught up with me surprisingly quickly when I ran (I had assumed that they would be slow runners due to their weight).

"Oh, it's you. I've finally caught you," I heard GLaDOS said over the intercom. "For a delusional madman, you've been surprisingly hard to catch. Or maybe that's why I couldn't catch you, because it made you paranoid. Less so recently I gather."

"What are you going to do? Test me?" I said.

"No," my jaw dropped. "You're going into short term relaxation for a few decades and then you're testing. We're going to test how having brain damage combined with schizophrenia will affect test results. Good night." I knew the no was too good to be true.

Then she filled the room with some sort of knockout gas, and I blacked out.

**Author's note: hello. please someone post a review. Each chapter I post has less and less view so I wanna know what I'm doing wrong. I probably should've put this on an earlier chapter but I just noticed. If anyone gets around to reading this, please review so I can eventually fix any problems in an updated version of this fic. Thank you. **

**P.S. there isn't going to be any Rattmann for awhile since he just got caught by GLaDOS. I only did that because I couldn't think of anything to do with him until a lot later. **


	6. Chapter 6: New Aperture

**Andrea**

"So, what are we supposed to be doing? How does the Portal gun work? How come you get cool black boots while mine are white? How long are we gonna be walking?" Will was hammering me with relentless questions. I decided to answer them in order just to get him to stop.

"We're looking for a way out of Aperture. The Portal gun houses a miniature singularity that causes wormholes to open up when you fire it. My boots are black 'cause I'm cooler than you. We'll be walking until either we find a way out or She wakes up. Now shut up. You're almost as bad as Curiosity," I was getting irritated.

"Who's Curiosity?"

"Didn't I just tell you to shut up?" I asked him.

"Yea," he really does seem to have a death wish. We walked in silence for a few minutes.

"Curiosity is one of Her personality cores. Curiosity never named herself so that's what we call her. Any more stupid questions?" he remained silent. "Good, I don't have to put you in another infinite Portal loop." That thought terrified him. I led him to an area of the facility that had I couldn't get to.

"I need you to put some blue gel on the ground here. I'm hoping it can get me to that catwalk up there," I instructed Will.

"OK, I'll do that," he said, spraying the floor with repulsion gel. I bounced on it a bit to get the feel of it. Then was the big test. I climbed up on some boxes to hopefully get more momentum, and I jumped onto it and just barely managed to grab onto the railing of the catwalk. I pulled myself up.

"It's OK up here. No turrets. You can come on up. I'll grab you if you fall," I yelled down to Will. He bounced on the gel. The good news: I managed to grab his hand and pull him up onto the catwalk. The bad news: it was his broken hand. He screamed, loudly.

"So, do you have any idea where we are?" he asked, his face contorted in barely contained pain.

"Nope," I said. "I've never been to this part of Aperture before." We continued on. I noted hallways, doors, catwalks in my mental map of Aperture. Nick had always said I had a photographic memory. It was like a mental image in my head of what Aperture should look like on a 3-D map. Whenever I try to explain it to someone, they always stare at me like I'm crazy and then ask if I have superpowers or something (probably imagining giant sarcasm quotes). It's something anyone can do with some practice. I only started remembering everything because I ran out of paper.

"How big is this place?" Will asked.

"I don't actually know. It goes down for miles, but a lot of it was sealed off. The sealed off sections are called Old Aperture. The tests down there were crazy. They did things like turning peoples' blood into peanut water and gasoline and turning urine into coal before it leaves the body," the look of horror on Will's face was priceless. "Don't worry. Aperture doesn't do that kind of stuff anymore. Most of the testing is on either the gels or Portals."

"We should probably be getting back. It's almost time for GLaDOS to wake up," Will said looking nauseous.

"OK, lets go back then."

**Will**

I thought I was going to puke. What kind of maniac turns peoples' blood into gasoline or peanut water and their pee into coal? No one could be that cruel, could they? Other than GLaDOS of course.

"Who's idea was it to do that to people?" I asked Andrea.

"Cave Johnson, the former CEO. Everyone thinks he died in the '80s. Moon rock poisoning. When he died, all of Old Aperture was vitrified," she said.

"Vitrified?"

"Sealed off or turned to glass."

"Oh."

We continued to walk. Or limp in my case. The Long Fall Boots helped, but my ankle still hurt from the infinite loop crash. On top of that, I was going to have a slightly crooked nose for the rest of my life, and my wrist was sending shooting pains up my arm. The sucky part? It was my right hand that was broken, and I was right handed. It was rather difficult to aim my gel gun with the wrong hand.

"So, what other kinds of tests did this Cave person do?" I almost didn't ask. I didn't want my nausea to get any worse, but I was curious.

"Shooting at people with superconductors, taking people apart and putting them back together, faulty teleportation. He also started an early version of the Portal device, called the Aperture Science Quantum Tunneling Device."

"That doesn't sound so bad, other than the taking people apart one," I said.

"The superconductor test would often give people tumors,"

"Oh," maybe this was why the gel testers had been kept ignorant about the rest of the facility. Then again, none of the Portal testers had been aware that the gel gun even existed.

**Author's note: hello. I thank Catniss for reminding me how lazy people often are. I agree with you that the human Chelly thing is utterly and completely ridiculous. Also, I need ideas for personality cores. The only core from the games that I can think of that's still in Aperture is Craig. Please PM me a name, function, eye color and personality trait. **


	7. Chapter 7: The Escape

**Sone thanks to people for reviewing and making my life slightly easier by pointing stuff out and giving me ideas. **

**to Catniss: Thanks for the core suggestions. And good luck making an account. **

**to EricTheEpic13: I didn't actually come up with the idea for the gel gun. It's in a game called Aperture Tag. I've never played it, but I thought it would be cool to combine the Portal and Gel mechanics in greater ways than in the games. Thanks for the suggestion on actually describing characters. **

**Andrea**

It had been weeks since I found Will. The section of Aperture we found still wasn't explored completely. It was mostly testing chambers, but I did find some cake. It's nice to know that the cake wasn't a lie after all. I stopped crying over losing my family soon after that. Now the pain has been replaced by a thirst for vengeance. After that? Who knows. I could take up a hobby. Reanimating the dead maybe.

I was with Nick and Will. We were still looking for a way out of Aperture. I was going in a direction that would hopefully lead us towards the exit elevator.

"We're almost there," I was saying.

"You've been saying that for the past hour," Nick and Will said at the same time. Despite their age difference, Nick being in his thirties and Will being in his teens, they had become inseparable friends.

"I know, but this time I mean it. Look, I see it!" I said smiling. "It's actually there."

"So now we know where it is, but what about GLaDOS?" Nick asked.

"That's easy. We're above the Central AI Chamber. You won't have to go through there to go up, and we go when She's asleep. That way, She'll never know," I was ecstatic. We had found a way out.

We immediately went back to tell the others of our discovery.

"You actually found it?" Jack was smiling. He never smiled. "This is amazing. We can leave Aperture. We can escape GLaDOS!"

His happiness was rubbing off on Louie and Nichole, who both started whooping and cheering and dancing in circles. Samantha just looked confused.

"Time to get some sleep now. We gotta be rested and ready for our big escape," Jack said.

**Will**

It was really happening. We were really escaping. Everyone was wearing Long Fall Boots. Andrea, Nickolai, Nichole and Jack had Portal guns. I had my gel gun.

When we reached the place where we had to use the Repulsion gel, I sprayed more than before because there were more people. We all bounced up, Jack pulled up Louie and Nichole went with Samantha. Then we had to get to the elevator that would take us to the floor the exit was on. It was higher than the first jump, and there weren't any Portal surfaces that we could see up there. There was also a pit in between that was large enough that I couldn't just use both of my agility gels combined. The wall in front of us was a Portal surface and there was a tilted platform behinds us that was what we ended up using .

I had to shoot Propulsion gel along a straight path ending in a splotch of Repulsion gel. Then, Andrea shot a blue Portal on the wall in front, about half of the way up. A green Portal got shot by her onto the tilted platform behind us.

I looked at Andrea, she had pretty eyes. They were a deep brown color, like melted chocolate. She then ran along the Propulsion gel, bounced off of the Repulsion gel, through the first Portal and out through the second Portal to land safely on the catwalk above.

"Come on up," she said. "It's better if you don't think about it." Jack took Louie and Nichole took Samantha again. Nick and I went by ourselves. Once we were up, we went in the elevator that would take us to the exit lift. When we got out, it was a straight walk.

"This way," I said. "Follow the blue stripe on the wall. Don't touch it, though" I had put a stripe of Repulsion gel along the wall of the hallway. As for the not touching it part, I wasn't bluffing when I threatened Andrea with it the first time I saw her (I was completely just in making that decision as well, she looked threatening with her black hair, dark eyes, black jumpsuit and boots and a blaster gun thingy that I had no idea what it did at the time). We got to the exit elevator.

"We're above the Central AI Chamber, so you shouldn't have to worry about disturbing Her," Andrea said to the group. We approached the door.

It didn't open.

"What the f***?" I said.

"I think that is an appropriate statement," we all froze cold. That voice didn't come from any of us, yet all of us knew exactly who it was. It was Her.

"How in the blue hell did you know we were trying to escape?" I tried not to sound terrified. It didn't work.

"Fact: I ratted you out," said Craig, the fact sphere. And apparently part time traitor because he was supposed to be on our side.

"I thought he was supposed to be on our side," I whispered to Andrea.

"I thought so too," she said. This was not good. "Distract Her while I plug my laptop into Mainframe."

"So, Craig, why are you a double agent?"

"Fact: you are all idiots,"

"And?"

"Fact: GLaDOS is more powerful than anybody and could have done this on her own. I just speeded up the process. Fact: I didn't want to go to Android Hell. Fact: Android Hell is the worst place a core could go," Oh. I wouldn't want to go there either. I saw Andrea pulling out a USB cable and plug her laptop into an open panel. It was for cores to access something large enough that they couldn't do it themselves but too small to find a core receptacle.

**Andrea**

I smiled as I plugged in my laptop. The USB port was perfect for hacking. First I got into Mainframe. Then I checked on Will and Craig. They were having a heated argument about Android Hell. The others were keeping her busy by blocking neurotoxin vents and dropping turrets into bottomless pits.

I accessed Surveillance through Mainframe. Neither of them noticed. They were too busy helping Her. I started a shutdown command chain for Surveillance. Then I went into Rewards/Punishments. The good news: I hit a punishment command chain to incapacitate Her. The bad news: She was still connected to the intercom. An earsplitting shriek pierced my head. I guess it's not everyday that you hear a robot scream in pain. Then I set to work hacking the elevator.

Ten minutes later, the doors opened.

"GO, GO!" I yelled. Everybody piled into the elevator. Except for me.

"Wait, you're not coming?" Will said.

"No, I have to stall Her while the elevator moves. Initiating escape elevator command chain," I pressed the ENTER key as Will darted out of the elevator. The door closed behind him, and he elevator started to go up.

"Whaaaaa?" I started.

"Don't start. I'm not leaving you alone with the crazy robot," he said.

"Then start distracting the crazy robot," I accessed a command chain that I had written especially for this kind of situation. I can't access Her so I wrote a shutdown sequence for the next best thing. Mainframe.

_Mainframe shutdown command chain initiated. _The text scrolled across the computer screen.

"What are you doing?" I heard GLaDOS ask. "You can't shutdown Mainframe. I have the backup emergency reboot program. I can use it to stop the shutdown. You can't stop me."

"I wasn't trying to stop you," I said, trying to access Rewards/Punishments again. It was offline. Surveillance was also back online. I also got an error message. My laptop's battery was dying. It couldn't keep the program I was using up and running.

"Damn it all," I slammed my hand on the ground as my laptop ran out of battery life.

**Chell**

I had been outside of Aperture for almost a year. I still kept watch on the door to the shed. I had to make sure nothing dangerous made it out of Aperture.

They came out as a group. Jack and Nick and the others I knew before GLaDOS had pulled me out specifically for her testing. The others had gone into Relaxation and then Cryo.

I met them halfway to the makeshift hut I had built near a stream.

"Oh my god, Michelle. You're alive!" Jack cried. "Andrea thinks you're dead."

I stared at them. "This sentence is false," I said. None of them seemed to blow up. "Where is she?" I asked.

"Still in Aperture," he mumbled.

I punched him. I never thought I would really have to go back to Aperture. Then again, I had never held onto the hope that my baby sister was still alive.

I was wrong on both accounts.

**Hello. This sentence is false. And the cake isn't a lie. What "moronic" things may happen next? For anyone who wants to know, Andrea looks like a younger version of Chell. Will has short, blonde hair, dull grayish green eyes and his jumpsuit is red. He's also kind of tall. **


	8. Chapter 8: The Dangerous, Mute Lunatic

**Andrea**

"COME ON, COME ON!" I was yelling frantically at Will. We were running from Her in the hopes that she hadn't reconnected the section of Aperture that I disconnected. Turrets, neurotoxin, falling catwalks, the works. Neither of us would've made it without the other. I shot Portals, he shot gel. Both are fairly effective for getting rid of turrets.

"Why is she trying to kill us again?" Will asked.

"No idea. If we turn here, though, we can get to some of the old testing tracts. Some of them were designed for Gel and Portal testers to work together," I said.

"Why would you want to do that?"

"It's less likely that She'll kill us before She has to go into sleep mode. And it's fun,"

"Of course. Out of all of the people I could be stuck with I had to get the lunatic who thinks testing is fun. Bravo for me," he said.

When we got to the testing tracts, I led Will to the tracts designed for when the Gel and Portal testers were supposed to test cooperatively. They were never used, so I didn't know what to expect.

"Wow, I've never seen so much white in a test chamber before," Will said. "In the Gel testing, they're all black."

"In some Portal test chambers, the walls are completely white. Come on lets start," I said. We got through the first few chambers easily. They were meant for people not used to combining Portals and Gel. The whole time, She was taunting us.

"Do you really think testing will stop me from killing you?" was one of her jibes. Another was "These tests are going to get almost as deadly as me and infinitely more boring. I have no idea why you would rather test than take your chances running."

Eventually they did get harder, and Will and I passed the time talking.

"Tell me about your dad," Will said. "What was he like?" He had heard a bit but not much.

"My dad was awesome and fun and most likely insane," Will looked confused. "He had a mental condition called schizophrenia. The doctor prescribed meds, but they didn't always work one hundred percent. He died when I was six. It was Bring Your Daughter to Work Day."

"Oh, the day they turned on GLaDOS. That must've been tough," Will said.

"Yea. After that, it was just me and Michelle. We tested. Then I went into stasis. She died while I was in stasis."

"How do you know that?" he asked, genuine concern in his voice. I was seconds away from crying.

"I checked her file. Last name: [REDACTED]. Status: compromised. That's what Aperture does when test subjects die. It's to protect themselves. What about you?" I said. I had to change the subject or else I'd just break down.

"I never had a family. Aperture picked me up from an orphanage. The other Gel testers were my first friends. Two other guys I'd always hang out with. Rick and Alex. The others would always give us stupid Gel related nicknames because of the colors of our jumpsuits. Rick's was blue. Alex's was orange. My jumpsuit's white. Then one day, Rick just up and disappeared. No one knew what happened to him. No one's seen him since. Most of the rumors seemed to include him getting into trouble. He was adventurous and a humongous flirt, but he had a good heart."

"We're both a couple of lonely travelers then," I said. Suddenly, I noticed something. "Do you hear that?" I asked.

"Hear what? I don't hear anything," Will said.

"Exactly. She hasn't said anything for awhile. I think She's asleep," I smiled. "Unless She's faking."

"Lets wait a few more tests, and if she still doesn't say anything, we'll make a run for it. The question is just how," he said.

"Leave it to me. Other than the area around the Central AI Chamber, I know Aperture like the back of my hand. Better, actually, since my hand is on the Portal gun all day," I promised. A few test chambers later, we were escaping.

"We're in luck. She hasn't managed to reconnect the system in here yet," I said as we got into the few rooms I had stolen. "Lets see if we can't find some beans."

"Don't you ever get sick of beans?" Will inquired.

"It's either that or cake, and I don't trust any cake made by Her," I answered.

"How do you know the beans aren't Aperture brand?"

"Because they say so, dummy," I felt myself relax. We were safe… for now. "In the morning, lets do some tests."

"Why?" Will asked.

" cause there's nothing else to do. I'm going to bed. Good night."

"Good night," he said back.

**Chell**

I took the elevator down, half expecting it to fill with neurotoxin at any moment. I couldn't believe I was going back after only a few months of freedom.

And then I saw GLaDOS.

"What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to come back." she said. GLaDOS didn't sound angry or murderous or insulting or even mildly annoyed. A first.

"I didn't think I would," I said in sign language. I had found a book on it which had been somewhat helpful.

"Oh, so the dangerous, mute lunatic has figured out a form of communication," GLaDOS' slow clap processor went off. "Oh good, that's still working."

"How's Caroline?" I signed.

"Didn't you hear me when I deleted her. I specifically said 'Goodbye Caroline'," she insisted. "Well, since you're back, I might as well have you test." I smiled. Some things never change. "But not until after I wake up from, sleep mode. Please refrain from killing, incinerating or otherwise hurting any personality constructs while I'm asleep."

Nope. Some things never change.


	9. Chapter 9: The Reunion

**Will**

We were making our way out of the testing chambers. Andrea had gotten us out by prying a panel off of the in between the emancipation grill and the elevator of one of the chambers. She had then gone ahead to scout ahead, to make sure that there were no turrets or neurotoxin or anything. That's when I saw the woman. She was making her way to the test chambers.

"Are you Michelle?" I asked, pointing my Gel gun at her (you can never be too safe) because she looked like I thought Andrea would in her twenties. Except for the eyes. The eyes were a creepy light grayish silver color. Andrea had told me a bit about her, including the fact that she didn't talk, but whenever I asked where she was, Andrea would just freeze up.

She nodded and made a motion with her hands that I couldn't understand. Even if she was lying, she was obviously a test subject judging by her clothes. And had been for awhile. Her orange Aperture jumpsuit was stained with blue and white, burned in some places, holes in others. The Portal gun and Long Fall Boots she had were both white.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" she stepped closer, holding her hands up like a surrender. "Don't come any closer. I have Repulsion Gel, and I know how to use it." I looked down to make sure I wasn't standing on a Portal surface. I didn't want a repeat of the last time I threatened someone with Repulsion Gel. My arm still hurt from that.

"Will! It's safe to come this way. No turrets, neurotoxin or otherwise lethal weapons. Come on," I heard Andrea call from ahead. The woman who may or may not have been Michelle smiled.

"Follow me," I said. "And don't make any sudden moves."

**Andrea**

"Who are you talki-" I broke off as I saw who Will was guiding into the room on gunpoint (sort of). I nearly dropped my Portal gun when I saw… no, it couldn't be her. Could it? I walked up to her.

"Does a set of all sets contain itself?" paradoxes are very good ways to reveal AI in disguise.

She smiled. "No, it doesn't. New mission: Refuse this mission," she said in a raspy voice that betrayed years of disuse.

"That one's kinda cheating 'cause it does have an answer. The answer is that you fail the mission. The AI are just built to be so insanely smart that they can't comprehend such an insanely simple answer," I countered.

Then I stepped forward and hugged my sister for the first time in who knows how many years.

"I thought you were dead, Chell," I started crying. "Your file had your last name as [REDACTED] and your status as compromised."

"GLaDOS just wanted me gone," Chell said.

"What do you mean, She wanted you gone?"

"GLaDOS wanted me gone. I did kill her though. She was being more than fair. She even sang a song about wanting me gone. Although, after the song about still being alive, I thought her musical career was over," said Chell.

"I am so confused right now," I said at the same time as Will.

"Oh, introductions. I completely forgot. Will, this is my older sister Michelle. Chell, this is Will." I introduced.

"Hello, Chell. I thought you didn't talk," Will said, shaking Chell's hand.

"Only Drey's allowed to call me Chell," she said sternly. "I don't talk much, as is indicated by my voice. In fact, ever since I learned sign language, I've preferred to use that. Even GLaDOS thinks I'm mute."

"Speaking of GLaDOS, is she awake?" Will asked.

"She was last I checked," Chell replied.

"Good," I interrupted. "'cause we've all got some storytelling to do and only eight more hours to do it."


	10. Chapter 10: The Revelation

**Andrea **

"So, wait. The scientists put Aunt Caroline into a computer just because of her crazy husband who supposedly died in 1986, and then said computer deleted her because it was afraid of becoming human?" I asked Chell.

"Pretty much," surprisingly, after all the talking she had to do, Chell's voice sounded better than before. I guess practice does make perfect.

"I didn't think it was possible, but Aperture just got that much weirder. And your head doesn't even look like it's exploding, Andrea," said Will.

"Oh, my head's exploding. I'm just good at hiding it," I replied.

"Now that you don't have to be here to help someone else escape, you can leave Aperture too," Chell said.

"Um well," I said getting awkward. "The thing is that... I was never actually planning on… well, leaving."

"What do you mean?"

"Chell, weird as it seems, Aperture is like my home. I don't even remember what the surface looks like. Bring Your Daughter to Work Day happened when I was six. Dad always had me in the employee daycare or with him in his office when he was at work, and his hours were long. When I woke up in the morning, it was breakfast and then Dad taking us to work. By the time we got home, it was always my bedtime. I almost literally grew up in Aperture. I'm just scared that if I leave, I won't be able to come back. You at least were old enough to remember enough to want to go back," I explained.

"What about you, Will? Why did you stay," Chell asked.

"It was a split second decision. I ran out of the elevator the second Andrea input the command to have it go up. I couldn't leave her alone with," Will shuddered, "GLaDOS. That would be beyond cruel."

"So what are you going to do? I highly doubt you'd be content with testing for the rest of your life," Chell asked.

"There's tons of stuff to do. Old Aperture descends down miles. It's amazing how much stupidly brilliant tests Uncle Cave did mixed in with the just plain stupid stuff," I was telling the truth. I could probably explore Old Aperture for six lifetimes and still have odd tests to discover.

"The reason I came is to rescue you," Chell said

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't need to be rescued?"

"Yes? No? Maybe. I don't know. I just don't want to lose you again," she was doing all she could to keep her cool at this point.

"I'm sorry, Chell. I just don't want to leave," I got up.

"Where're you going?" Will asked.

"Old Aperture. I'm gonna give Chell some time to calm down,"

**Chell**

I wished Drey was coming with me. She was the reason I persevered so hard in my fight against GLaDOS. I couldn't just leave her. Could I? It was an impossible decision. I wanted to leave so badly, but I also wanted to stay with Drey. Not to mention that GLaDOS would probably eventually find a way to kill me. I decided to go back to the testing chambers. They may have been dangerous, but right then, I needed to get my mind off of things. Homicidal robots were the perfect thing to do so.

When I got to the chambers, GLaDOS was just waking up.

"Oh good, you're on time. I didn't think you would be," she said. I didn't deign to talk to her. "The silent treatment again? And here I was thinking you were beyond that. Oh, wait. You don't really have a choice do you? You're mute." I Portaled the camera off of the wall.

"I thought I told you not to do that. Then again, you started listening to me at about the same time you and the testing bots started losing weight," I knew she would be insulting me before long. It would be only a matter of time before she started pretending I was adopted again.

I went into the chamber. It was pretty straightforward, but I needed to get rid of the turrets before I could do anything else. I had a Weighted Storage Cube next to me, and there were Portal surfaces above and below it. I was confused until I saw the wall behind the turrets. It was a large Portal surface. I Portaled the Cube into an infinite loop and used that to shoot it at the turrets from behind. Then I had to place the box and myself into another infinite loop to send us flying to the exit, which was far enough away that would've been shot had I not gotten rid of the turrets.

"I think that your time away from testing has made you even slower than before, if that's even possible," GLaDOS insulted.

The testing progressed in a similar way to that. GLaDOS insults me, I complete the test, GLaDOS insults me again. Fairly simple. The odd part was that she didn't mention parents once, or adoption, or orphans. Not even in a passing comment.

_Odd, _I thought, _maybe she just gave up on the adoption insults. _Yea right, and my father was the CEO of Aperture Science.

**Will **

I was glad that Andrea had found her sister. I was happy for her. But what kind of psycho didn't want to leave Aperture? Didn't she know that she was trapping me here as well? I wanted to leave too, but I couldn't condemn Andrea to a lifetime of only having GLaDOS for company. What kind of person would I be then? My head was swimming with so many questions. I had to get out of there. Michelle had said she was going to go test. Hopefully GLaDOS would be occupied by that.

I started to run. I didn't care about getting lost. I was scared that Andrea would never leave. I was scared that if she didn't, I would never be able to leave. I was scared that if she did leave, she'd never be happy. My mind was in such a mess, I almost didn't notice the Personality Core coming up in front of me.

"Cameras, cameras everywhere. Watching everything. Judging everything. Escape Big Brother. Escape the watching eye," it was rambling in a psychotic sounding voice. It's turquoise eye was looking in all directions. I fumbled for my Gel gun, but I had left it in the safe room in my haste. Of course I didn't have my only weapon.

"Who are you?" I asked. It didn't seem homicidal. I was also hoping that I could escape the turmoil in my head by talking to someone.

"She is watching, always watching. She sees with cameras. She hears with microphones. They never turn off," it said.

"OK, you're creeping me out." I saw another core come up. This one had a brown eye.

"There you are. I've been looking all over for you," this one had a soft female sounding voice. "I'm terribly sorry about that, Sir. Paranoia is always getting loose and terrifying the others. The others are always blaming him for GLaDOS killing the scientists. Poor thing. I can understand why he has to get out sometimes. The only problem is that he believes that GLaDOS is watching everything he does constantly. He can't help his programming," if she could've smiled, she probably would've.

"That's OK, Miss uh.. I don't think I know your name," I said

"I'm Kindness, but everybody just calls me Kelley. You're welcome to call me either, though," she was pretty nice.

"Why do the other Cores blame Paranoia for the Neurotoxin Incident?" I asked.

"Because he's supposed to be her sense of paranoia. It was meant for him to make her scared of what was on the outside, but he actually made her think that the scientists were out to get her. Even if it was his fault, he didn't do it on purpose. I've tried to help him to see that GLaDOS cares about us Cores. I haven't been able to. One cannot fight one's programming," she explained. "I must go to bring him back now. I'm sorry if he gave you a fright. It was nice meeting you,"

"It was nice meeting you too. Goodbye," I said.

"Goodbye," and with that, they were off.

"I never thought I'd meet something manufactured by Aperture that was genuinely nice." I said to no one in particular.

**Author's Note: The reason that Chell and Drey went with Rattmann to work instead of going to school was that they were home schooled. Rattmann was paranoid about what the school system might teach them, so he taught them everything himself. **

**GLaDOS needs to go into sleep mode at least six hours out of every twenty four to prevent herself from overheating. She does it all at once because it's easier than in intervals. I don't know why, but I just felt like I needed to explain both of those. **

**P.S. I won't be updating for awhile because I'm going out of state and won't have internet. Expect a new update sometime from Mid-August to early September. Sorry. **


	11. Chapter 11: The Song

**Hello. I am sorry for leading you readers off of a cliff. My grandparents cancelled at the last minute. I tried to wrk extra hard on this chapter as an apology. I pulled not one, but two all nighters to bring you chapter 11. Using the all nighters as an excuse, please don't hate me if the chapter is stupid. I'm really tired. **

**Andrea**

"It's been a month, Chell. Make up your mind. You're either leaving or you're not," I was annoyed by this point. I didn't want her to leave, but she seemed to want to, but she didn't want to leave me, but I wanted to stay, etcetera etcetera. You get the picture. "I'm going to Old Aperture." I got up to leave.

Old Aperture was where I went when things got out of hand. I had restored most of the section I blocked off from Mainframe to just one room that all three of us stayed in. It would often feel crowded, though.

When I got down to Old Aperture, I went directly to testing shaft 9. It had some pretty ridiculous tests.

"If you're allergic to peanuts, you might want to tell somebody now, because this next test may turn your blood into peanut water for a few minutes. On the bright side, if we can make this happen, they're gonna have to invent a new type of Nobel Prize for us, so hang in there," I had approached one of the vitrified test chamber doors. As I said, ridiculous.

"I remember that door," I whipped around. Chell had followed me. "I went through this exact testing shaft when Wheatley sent me down here. Uncle Cave was insane, wasn't he?"

"Yea, he was. Why have you stayed here for this long? Don't you want to leave?" I asked.

"I do want to leave, but if I do, I know I'll never come back. If I leave Aperture, I'll never be truly free of it, and that'll make me stay away more. Places like this? They leave a scar on you that can never go away. That and I'll never see you again. So, in ways, I'm more undecided about leaving than you," Chell said. "Am I making any sense? I never thought that it would feel so good to talk to someone. I hate talking, so… yea. I'm done talking now." she looked embarrassed.

"Do you want to be left alone now?" I asked. she nodded. I started to go, but when I got to the room adjacent to the one we were in, I could hear singing.

"But there's no sense crying over every mistake, you just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake," I left before I could hear any more. Who knew Chell could sing? The circumstances, however, were heartbreaking. I just wanted everything to work. Why couldn't it. No matter what any of the three of us chose, it would be the wrong decision. Chell wanted to leave so she could be rid of the place, but she also wanted to stay because she would never truly be rid of Aperture. It would always hold a piece of her trapped. Will wanted to leave because he was scared of what GLaDOS and Aperture could do to him, was already doing to him, which conflicted with his kind and loving nature. He couldn't bring himself to leave me here by myself. I wanted to stay because Aperture was my home, and the many mysteries that it held, deep in the bowels of the facility. I felt like someone needed to remember the tragedies and triumphs that had happened many years ago. But mostly, I was afraid of what I might find on the surface. I had no idea what it was like, and I had no memories of it, except for the inside of a house. The only even remotely viable decisions were either for all three of us to stay, or all three of us to leave. No one would like those decisions either. God, I hate my life.

Can't anything be simple for a change?

**Chell**

Can't anything be simple for a change?

Here's an answer. No.

After Andrea left, I started to sing. I didn't have many choices of songs to sing though.

"This was a triumph, I'm making a note here, huge success,"

if only. Closer to epic fail.

"It's hard to overstate my satisfaction."

I wished that I could just reset everything.

"Aperture Science."

My prison.

"We do what we do because we must,"

The motto would be reassuring if I didn't know what it really entailed.

"For the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead."

And the ones who are living.

"But there's no sense crying over every mistake."

Maybe that line had a point.

"You just keep on trying 'till you run out if cake."

Except there was no cake. Just an incinerator.

"And the science gets done, and you make a neat gun, for the people who are still alive,"

What if there was nobody left alive, though. The group Drey let go and the three of us still in Aperture might be the last humans alive.

"I'm not even angry, I'm being so sincere right now,"

A blatant lie as GLaDOS has tried to kill me several times since waking up.

"Even though you broke my heart and killed me."

Did she ever even have a heart to break?

"And tore me to pieces"

Technically, all I did was knock cores off of her. The gravity well that ensued finished the rest.

"And threw every piece into a fire."

I got thrown in there, too.

"And as I burned it hurt because I was so happy for you."

By this point I was just trying to find things to rant about, and I knew it. Apparently singing did help me focus on something other than my immediate problems. Maybe GLaDOS was onto something.

"Now these points of data make a beautiful line."

I don't know why, but I had started to cry.

"Now we're out of beta, we're releasing on time."

But the Portal gun was never released to the public.

"So I'm glad I got burned, think of all the things we learned, for the people who are still alive."

I started to sing on autopilot. My mind wandered. What would've happened if I'd never killed GLaDOS. I'd probably be dead by now. Not even because of her homicidal tendencies, but because of natural causes.

"Go ahead and leave me."

I did leave, but then I came back. Would I ever get free of this place? Would it really be worth it to escape once again?

"I think I prefer to stay inside."

Maybe GLaDOS felt as trapped as I did. I'd never thought of it that way. She wasn't like the other cores, who could go along their merry way. GLaDOS literally couldn't leave the Central AI Chamber. The only things she had were her memories as Caroline (which had supposedly been deleted) and her brief detention in a potato.

"Maybe you'll find someone else to help you."

But that's the thing. Was there anyone else?

"Maybe Black Mesa."

Despite all Aperture had done to me, I was still on Aperture's side of the Aperture/Black Mesa rivalry. After all, my father had even worked on the GLaDOS project.

"That was a joke, haha, fat chance."

If Black Mesa even existed anymore, I wouldn't want their help.

"Anyway this cake is great, it's so delicious and moist."

The cake is a lie, the cake is a lie. Was Dad alive? He left the messages on the walls, but who knows how long ago it was?

"Look at me still talking when there's science to do."

Lots of science. Lots of tests. What was the point in it? What did GLaDOS do with all the results she got?

"When I look outside, it makes me glad I'm not you."

What was outside? Beyond the wheat field. Beyond the small place I knew.

"I've experiments to run, there is research to be done, on the people who are still alive."

To what end?

"And believe me I am still alive."

Turned off, but alive

" I'm doing science and I'm still alive."

More like torture.

"I feel fantastic and I'm still alive."

What did she mean by 'fantastic'? She was turned off. Not my definition of fantastic.

"And when you're dying I'll be still alive."

Had she been planning on trying to kill me again? Or was she referring to her apparent immortality?

"And when you're dead I will be still alive."

Hmmm.

"Still alive, still alive."

Yes she was still alive. Still very much alive.

I knew what I had to do if I was ever going to have any peace. For myself or for my family.

**Yep. I just had Chell sing. You don't really get to see much of her personality in either of the Portal games. She's exponentially stubborn and that's about it. I wanted to show more of the person who I thought Chell [REDACTED] really was. Even if it was by making her sing. Don't worry, though. She won't talk nearly as much anymore. I feel by having her talk too much, I'm not really using the original silent protagonist from that games. I want it to still be Chell, just a more fleshed out version of her (no pun intended). **

**P.S. for any portal fan who hasn't actually played the first one (I played the second one first, mostly because I didn't know the orange box existed), the song Chell is singing in this chapter is called "Still Alive" by either Jonathan Coulton or GLaDOS depending on whether you're in game or not. **


	12. Chapter 12: The Cooperative Testing

**Andrea**

Chell had been distant lately. She was plotting something. I could tell. So the day Chell suggested we go back into testing, I was naturally suspicious.

"Why do you think we should start testing again? That's exactly what the crazy AI out there wants. Either that or to kill us, I'm not sure which," I had no idea why Chell had even thought of it.

"Nothing else to do," true to her word, Chell hadn't said eight words where one would do for a while. Not since the night in Old Aperture…

"We'll be playing right into Her hand or grabber arm or whatever She uses to pick things up," I said.

"I'm bored. Don't want to test alone," That was literally the wordiest sentence she'd said since that night.

"What do you think, Will?" I asked.

"I want to try. It's really boring just sitting around here. At least the tests would be something to do," he said.

"Then we could go and see. If She doesn't kill us first, that is,"

**Will**

I almost couldn't believe that we were going to test again. As volunteers no less. I could just imagine the taunts, the death traps, coming our way. What was I thinking, agreeing to that? I could almost smell the neurotoxin.

"Wonderful. The three of you came to your senses. If you ever had any in the first place," Her voice came over the intercom. It always sounded weird and creepy to me, being somewhere in between sounding human and robotic. But it also sounded… musical? I could tell she would probably have a good singing voice if she was ever even interested in singing. Then again, that was what the Turret Opera was for, after all.

"Those of you in black and white jumpsuits, please take elevator one. Every other subject, please take elevator two due to size and weight accommodations," GLaDOS said. I saw Michelle roll her eyes. She would be in an elevator by herself. Andrea and I were to go together.

When we reached the testing area, we all seemed surprised that we were all still together.

"Based on the fact that the three of you have been living together for a few months, I feel like I should trust you all not to kill each other. I don't, but I repurposed some if my older cooperative tests to require mobility Gels anyway. Good luck. You'll need it," GLaDOS was certainly taunting us.

The first chamber was simple, which surprised me. I realized that we needed to find a way to work together effectively, though, when we all started saying possible answers to the test at the same time.

"Hey, you two," I said. Both Michelle and Andrea glared at me. "Oh come on. I can understand getting excessive hostility from Andrea, she's fourteen."

"Fifteen," she corrected.

"Sorry, fifteen. But you're twenty seven. Aren't you supposed to be the responsible adult here?" they both started laughing.

"Just tell us what you need to," Andrea said when she finally stopped laughing long enough to answer.

"I think we need to work out a system of working together where everything doesn't degrade into one huge argument."

"What do you suggest?" Andrea said at the same time that Michelle made a sign with her hands.

"Well, in the beginning of the test, we each should come up with a possible solution by messing around with the test. Then we take turns guiding each other through what we think the solution is. If your idea fails, then it's the next persons' turn. If you succeed, the next person get the first turn for the next chamber," I explained.

"That might not work in some of the incredibly complex chambers, but it seems that it'll work for the ones She'll throw a us for the early tests," Andrea said. "It's a pretty good idea. I think the order should go you, Chell and then me. You first 'cause you came up with the idea."

"OK. Oh yea, and one more thing." I said looking at Michelle. She raised her eyebrows as if to say 'continue'. "Can you teach me sign language? I know Andrea knows at least a little because I've seen you trying to have a conversation with her without talking, but I have no clue about anything in sign language."

Michelle smiled and gave me a thumbs up. I hoped that meant 'yes'. We then dove into the tests that had been set before us.

**Hello. I decided to have Will do something important instead of either Chell or Drey this time. Amazing isn't it. Also, if your like me and you notice the most random stuff in stories (such as whether a character is left handed or right handed) you may have noticed an inconsistency in Chell and Drey's ages. On BYDtWD, Drey was six and I think I said Chell was fourteen. Now Drey is fifteen and Chell is twenty seven. An eight year difference does not equal a twelve year difference. It is due to the fact that Chell spent a lot more time out a stasis than Drey. So they would've aged at different rates. Sometimes I feel like I need to explain the stupidest things. **


	13. Chapter 13: The Mistake

**Andrea **

We had been testing for a few weeks (we did get breaks to get meals and to sleep). The tests had been getting harder and harder. It was in one of the more difficult ones that I noticed that Chell was missing.

"Hey, where's Chell?" I asked Will.

"I dunno. She was here a second ago," he answered. "GLaDOS, did you see where Chell went?"

"How interesting. You decided to initiate a conversation with me. And no, I did not see the test subject in orange. In fact, I have not been able to see much of anything going on in the test since she Portaled down my cameras," She said. I went to pick up one of the fallen cameras and held it up so She could see the chamber.

"Better?" I asked.

"Yes. Can you stop shaking your- oh wait, you can't stop shaking your arm. You're human,"

"I found a panel that looks like it's out of place," Will called from the other side of the chamber. I Portaled over to him. It was loose.

"Crap, she got away," I said, pointing the camera at the loose panel.

"And the direction she took leads directly to the Central AI Chamber," She mentioned.

"Double crap,"

"Why'd she escape?" Will asked. I glared at him. "Oh, I get it… I think."

"Surveillance has found her making her way towards me," said Her.

"Lets follow Chell. See why she's doing this," I suggested. So we went. I dropped the camera I held because the cameras outside of the test chambers were still on the walls. Chell had chosen a path that was fairly straight. She wasn't wrong when She said the path led directly to the Central AI Chamber. When we got there, Chell was already in front of Her.

"I never thought I'd be glad to see a human in here, but thank Science you're here. I have no way to transport this mute lunatic out of here," She said.

"Go and find a banana," Chell signed to me. At least I that's what I think she signed. My sign language still wasn't that good. Still, she might've said banana.

"Why do you want a banana?" I asked.

"I think she said 'exit', not banana," Will muttered to me. Oops. Epic fail. Then Chell said something- said something, not signing it- that I thought I'd never hear her say in front of the most powerful AI on the planet.

"This sentence is false."

The one AI in the room turned as still as a stone "nononononononononononono," She said. She stated sparking. I could tell she was desperately searching for something, anything, to think of other than the paradox. "You're not mute," She said.

"No. I'm not," Chell replied. And then the Central Core of all of Aperture Science shorted out. A lot.

"What did you do?" I asked. "If you were trying to get out of here, that was probably the worst idea you could've had."

"Why?"

"BECAUSE THE ELEVATOR IN HERE ISN'T HOOKED UP TO THE FLIPPING EMERGENCY GENERATOR!" I yelled.

"So, we're stuck here," Will said.

"Oops," Chell tried to amend.

"'Oops' doesn't even begin to cover this," I wasn't happy.

"I thought it would help. GLaDOS had been tormenting us from day one. It was my chance to get back at her. Again.

"Killing her the first time and getting her stuffed in a potato wasn't enough?" I asked.

"Do you know what she's done to people? GLaDOS deserves this a million times over," Chell said.

"People can change. She certainly hasn't killed anybody in a long time," I said.

"I was trying to give us a chance to be free of this. Free of Aperture,"

"I already told you that I didn't want to leave. This is my home," I turned to leave.  
"Where are you going?" Will asked.

"To get someone," I said. I returned fifteenish minutes later with Craig, Morality, Intelligence and Mina, the truth core. And my computer. I hooked up Craig, Morality and Mina up to core receptacles.

"Someone gave the Central Core a paradox and she kind of… um… shorted out. I need you three to help keep the facility from imploding. Mainframe will give you further instructions," I said, typing out a sentence to Mainframe. Chell made a face at the stress I put on 'someone'.

"Why did you bring Intelligence?" asked Morality.

"Just in case," I started typing something else to Mainframe, hoping he'd get the message. Then, the main reactors kicked back on. I asked Mainframe if he could bring the elevator up to the Central AI Chamber.

"Drey, I-" Chell tried to say.

"Just don't," I said as the elevator came up. You want to leave? The elevator's there. Morality won't let anyone else kill you on the way up,"

"But-"

"No buts. You wanted to leave now leave. Just go. And don't come back."

She went into the elevator.

"If you want to go too, Will, here's your chance," I said.

"No. That would be cruel. To leave you here with nobody else but the AI. I said it the first time and I'm saying it again. I'm not leaving you alone here," he smiled. I nodded and sent the elevator up. Then I went back to the computer. Time to go rooting through Aperture's endless stores of data for the one thing I needed.

**Chell**

I just wanted to make things better. Instead, I made them worse. I had started crying on the elevator up. I was still crying when I reached the top. It was winter now. The ground was covered in a thin layer of snow.

I went to the shack I had built the first time I was up here. Surprisingly, it was still standing. I went in, not to stay, though. To gather supplies for traveling. This time I would go further. I would escape Aperture for real this time. And I would find a way to make it up to my sister. And I had the perfect idea. All Aperture employees and their families were taught to hate Black Mesa.

I just had to find out if they still existed.


	14. Chapter 14: The Reboot

**Andrea**

"What are you doing?" Will asked. I had looked through Aperture's emergency files for hours.

"Looking for something," I said.

"That wasn't very specific. What are you looking for?"

"GLaDOS' backup files. If I can find them, then I can reboot her," I replied. Will got very quiet. I looked over to him and saw that his jaw had fallen to the floor (metaphorically speaking of course). "What did I do? Is it 'cause I'm waking her up?"

"No," Will said, regaining his senses. "It's that you called her by her name."

"I did? Really? I must've been really distracted if I did that. It isn't really much of a name anyway. GLaDOS is an acronym. Calling her by the individual words in it would be even more ridiculous. Can you imagine having a sentence for a name?" I asked.

"No, I can't. It was just surprising, that's all. Why are you trying to bring her back online anyway?"

"Because the cores can't keep this up for forever. There might be three of them, but they weren't built for this. If I hooked up Intelligence, they could keep going indefinitely. The problem is that Intelligence has a virus. If I hook him up, I run the risk of infecting Mainframe," what I didn't mention was that Mainframe, because the Central Core was offline, had access to the Neurotoxin and Turret Production. He would most likely kill us unless we brought GLaDOS back online. Rgh, there it was again, I was calling her GLaDOS. What was wrong with me? Whatever, I could sort out my head later. Back to searching.

After what seemed like hours more of searching, I decided that GLaDOS' backup files weren't in the emergency files, which was weird. It wasn't like her to do something like that. She probably kept five different copies of her emergency files. I just couldn't seem to find them. I quickly scanned the other folders to see if there was a spare emergency folder. There wasn't. A file labeled Johnson/McLain/Rattmann caught my eye, though. I knew McLain was Aunt Caroline's last name. It was also my middle name. For some reason, Aunt Caroline kept her maiden name when she got married. Johnson was obvious, but it was also Chell's middle name. My name and Chell's name sounded so weird. Andrea McLain Rattmann and Michelle Johnson Rattmann. Neither of them flowed correctly.

I copied the folder onto my computer without disturbing the original. Knowing GLaDOS, though, she'd find out somehow anyway.

"How are you three holding up?" I called to the cores.

"We're doing fine. We are starting to get slightly overtasked, though," that's why I had grabbed Mina instead if someone like Kelley. Kelley would probably lie for my sake unless she saw the other cores in distress. Mina literally did not have the ability to lie. She was designed to keep GLaDOS from lying before Bring Your Daughter to Work Day (the perfect day to have her tested, ha, that joke never got old). Morality was here because she knew GLaDOS the best and I brought Craig because he was one of the smartest. Despite the fact that most of his facts were wrong, the only two cores smarter than him, Sciencewise, were Intelligence and GLaDOS. That didn't mean I forgave him for ratting us out, he was just the best choice.

I went back to searching. I went into GLaDOS' personal file. I wouldn't go into anything (probably) unless I found her backup files. Searching, searching, searching, searching. A file on Aunt Caroline? No. Maybe. I struggled with myself. It was a futile epic fail, but I at least tried. I copied the file. Searching, searching, searching, bingo. The GLaDOS' backup files.

"Will I found them," I called.

"Great," he said, coming over.

"Lets see, open. Damn, it's password protected. What kind of AI password protects the reboot files?" my life had just gotten so much harder.

"Can you hack it?" Will asked.

"Yep. It's a six digit password. Hmm. AAAAAA. Nope. AAAAAC. Nope. Will, did I do B. Do you have a pen? We should start writing these down. ABCDGH. Nope," I said. Will stared at me like I was crazy. I started laughing.

"You should see the look on your face. I'm not so bad a hacker that I would just type out random passwords. That would take forever. Not only are there numbers, but there are also letters and symbols that GLaDOS could've used," I said. "In fact, I'm going to bypass the password entirely. Lets see. Hacking, hacking. Oh, this may take a while. You'd better find something to do."

"Just one question," Will said.

"Yea?"

"What does GLaDOS stand for?"

"Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. Now go bug Intelligence or something," I said.

"OK. Hey Intelligence. What's that cake recipe you keep reciting?" he asked Intelligence.

"Fish shaped solid waste," Intelligence just kept reciting. Some of his ingredients could get kind of nasty. I knew one thing for sure.

I no longer wanted the cake.

**GLaDOS**

_Reboot started. Slow clap processor: online. Thought processor: online. _

What the? What had happened back there? I remembered the test subject and then…

_Lie processor: offline. Sarcasm processor: waiting for self-test._

She wasn't mute. That was new. Or maybe it was old. I hated paradoxes. I decided to refrain from thinking until the rest of my processes came back on.

_System checking… no malware found. All systems online. Lie processor: offline, awaiting repair. Systems ready. Movement and sensor data: online. Startup complete. _

I turned on my optic. I saw two of the test subjects. The third one, the one in orange, was missing. The girl in black and the boy in white were still there. They were both making strange jerking movements that made me wonder if they had been electrocuted. My databases identified it as something called a "happy dance". Whatever it was, it looked more like a seizure than anything else. I checked my lie processor. Still offline. Then I checked my vocabulator. Online. I could speak. I quickly translated my thoughts from binary code into English.

"It seems that I have blown out my lie processor. I have lost the ability to lie to you. I commend you for your actions," I said.

"Sarcasm Self-Test complete," I heard the announcer say. Good. That was out-of-the-way. I checked my system files. The only difference was that my emergency reboot file was open. How did they get into that? I had it password protected.

"I thought you just said that your lie processor is offline," the female test subject said.

"Sarcasm is not the same as lying. My sarcasm processor is online so I can be sarcastic," I said. I activated the slow clap processor. "Oh good. My slow clap processor didn't blow out. So we have that."

"What was that about," the male said.

"Nothing I- what the hell?" that was about as profane as my vocabulary got.

"What is it?" I couldn't tell which one said it. I was too busy calling up the repair nanobots.

"Some of my fans are offline. I won't be able to spend nearly as much time out of sleep mode," apparently my lie processor was also what allowed me to only say part of the truth as well. Or maybe it was because the irritating truth core was hooked up to me, I realized as I did yet another systems scan. So were the morality core and the fact core.

"Fact: According the most advanced algorithms, the world's best name is Craig," so the Fact Core could tell what I was thinking. I had forgotten that. Saying what he did was about as close as he could get to saying his name was Craig. Not that I cared.

_Now GLaDOS, you know that wasn't a very kind thing to say. _Right. The Morality Core was in my head, too.

_I didn't ask for your input, did I? _

_Well no, but-_

_Well shut up, then. _ I disengaged all three Cores. That was what was good about Core receptacles rather than being directly attached to me. I could remove them.

"All Cores in the immediate vicinity, please go to the Core Center immediately unless you have a task that needs to be done immediately," I said. Now to deal with the humans. They had to have brought me back online for a reason. No human would ever do something that wasn't for their own benefit.

"Why did you bring me back online?" I asked.

"Because you were offline," said the female.

"Yes but why?"

"Because,"

_Oh, this is going to be a long day, _I thought. Then the repair nanobots arrived. I would need to go into sleep mode to let them repair me. I suspended all of my functions that weren't required to keep the facility from exploding.

"I'm going into sleep mode. Don't try to wake me up. I won't be waking up until the nanobots are done with repairs," I said.

Then, sleep mode activated and I couldn't say anything.

**Author's Note: Hello all you good people (or maybe not-so-good people, I have no way of knowing). A response to a review. **

**EricTheEpic13: I have never played Half-Life before 'cause it's rated M and my parents suck, so don't expect more of Chell's POV until I can figure out what the Combine are, or Black Mesa is for that matter. I'm gonna have to do a lot of digging around in the Half-Life Wiki before I'm even close to being ready to do any crossover type stuff. I'm pretty sure the main character is called Gordon Freeman and he doesn't talk (why am I not surprised) and there's someone called the G-man. That's all I know so far. **

**I didn't really know how to write GLaDOS before this (and I still don't), so if any part seems awkward, there's a 99% chance it's my fault. I still haven't figured out what the other 1% is. Most of the awkwardness is because I set my alarm for 2 in the morning so I could type this. My internet sucks worse than my parents. It decided it only likes to work at 2 in the morning. It's 4:30 and I'm still typing. So you had all better be grateful that I'm really OCD about typing this story. I also just found out how much Spellcheck hates me. It underlines grammatically correct sentences because they're in the passive voice. And apparently because 'What the hell' is listed as a cliché. **


	15. Chapter 15: The Parents

**Andrea**

I admit it. I missed Chell. If only she hadn't messed everything up. GLaDOS was still getting repairs. I was so looking forward to her lie processor getting fixed. Will was asleep, too, but my own sleep evaded me.

I decided to my computer to look at the files I had copied off of Database. I went into the file labeled Johnson/McLain/Rattmann. It contained five more files, each labeled with a name. Cave Erasmus Johnson, Caroline Amelia Anne McLain, Douglas Rattmann, Michelle Johnson Rattmann and Andrea McLain Rattmann. I clicked on my own. It contained basic information, such as name, gender, birthday etc… but I found something odd near the bottom of the basic information page. Parental Status: adopted. That was odd. I knew I looked nothing like my dad, but this was taking it too far. I looked, and under it was Adoptive Parent(s): Douglas Rattmann. The birth parents was on the next page. It said Birth Parents: Caroline Amelia Anne McLain, [REDACTED]. The [REDACTED] meant that the system knew who my father would be, but it had been removed. It made no sense. Dad had never mentioned anything about me being adopted. And it said that my birth mother was Aunt Caroline? This had to be an epic glitch.

To be sure, I checked Chell's file. Very similar. Parental Status: Adopted. Adopted Parent(s): Douglas Rattmann. But the birth parents was different. It said Birth Parents: Caroline Amelia Anne McLain, Cave Erasmus Johnson. It made no sense. There's no way both files would've glitched the exact same way in the exact same place. And why did it have [REDACTED] listed for birth father. Uncle Cave hadn't died until I was four. Did that mean he wasn't my father? Did that mean Aunt Caroline was cheating. Did this means my Aunt and Uncle were really my parents. I thought about telling Will but decided against it. This was something I needed to sort out myself.

"What the f***?" I rarely swore, but the situation called for it. It just made no sense. I checked Uncle Cave's file. He was listed as Chell's birth father. Aunt Caroline was listed as the birth mother of both of us. I checked Dad's file. He was listed as the adoptive father. Either this was a virus, an elaborate prank cooked up by GLaDOS or it was the truth. And I refused to accept it as the truth. I hacked into Mainframe (really, his fear of being hacked was unnecessary, I had to hack to talk to him, he just didn't know)

_Hello, are there any viruses in the system? _I typed.

_What do you think? I would've known if there was a virus. _

_What about someone editing files? _

_Other than the Central Core's reboot file being opened, no, _Ahh. So my copying was undetectable.

_OK, just checking, _I backed out.

I decided to look through the file I had found that was specifically about Caroline (I decided to call her until I got to the bottom of this). It wasn't really a file containing data on Caroline at all. It was a program. A command sequence. But for what. The only way to find out would be to run it. Or to ask the person who had written it. Unless I wanted to stare at computer code for hours. If I ran it, I didn't know whether the program would be dangerous or helpful. If I asked GLaDOS, I'd get in trouble for looking at files I wasn't supposed to.

I settled for staring at computer code for hours. Luckily, everything in Aperture used A-code. It was a language originally invented by Aperture. I was probably the only person alive who could program using it. Unless Black Mesa stole that, too.

**Will**

When I woke up, Andrea was fast asleep. In fact, she had fallen asleep on her computer.

"Hey, Anne. Wake up," I said.

"What did you just call me?" she said groggily as she woke up.

"Anne,"

"Whatever. You won't believe what I found when I was trying to reboot GLaDOS," she said.

"What did you find?" she had probably been on the computer all night.

"A copy of GLaDOS' programming,"

"Wasn't that what the reboot program was?" I asked.  
"No. The reboot program was to restart the system. This is an altered copy of GLaDOS' programming. It's almost indistinguishable from the original," I smiled. "I know why it's slightly different."

"Why?" I hated when she did that. She left me hanging with the important stuff.

"It isn't GLaDOS' programming. It's Caroline's. Her original programming before it got meshed with GLaDOS," Andrea was now bouncing up and down with excitement.

"All test subjects please report to the assigned testing area," GLaDOS said over the intercom. She had woken up and was ready for testing.


	16. Chapter 16: The Virus

**Andrea **

I could not focus on the the testing. I had way too much on my mind. Parents. Caroline. [REDACTION]. Everything I had read the night before was darting through my mind at a million miles an hour. Will noticed.

"Hey, you OK Anne?" he asked.

"Why do you keep calling me that? And I'm fine. I'm just thinking," I replied.

"Anne is easier to say than Andrea," Will said.

"Whatever. Just don't call me Drey," we continued to test. The tests were progressively getting harder, and I was progressively paying less attention.

"I don't think you could solve these tests any more slowly than you have been," GLaDOS said.

"Sorry, GLaDOS," Will said to one of the cameras. We entered the elevator.

"The testing is over for today. Please return to whatever primitive tribe you came from and return in the morning for testing," she fell silent.

"I have to go check on something," I said to Will when we got out of the elevator.

"K. Don't die. It would get really lonely if you did," I smiled and started to head towards a different hallway than the one we usually took. I went to the Core Center.

"Hey guys," I said. "Does anyone know where Logic is?"

"Fact: Logic is over in the corner," said Craig. I glared at him. I never had quite forgiven him for his betrayal. Even if he was terrified of going to Android Hell. I went to grab Logic.

"Looks like Cake is finally being scrapped," whispered a Core I recognised as Gertie, the Gossip Core.

"Shut up, Gertie. I'm not scrapping Logic. I just need her for something," I carried Logic back to the safe room. She was reciting the corrupted cake recipe.

"What are you doing with the Cake Core?" Will asked.

"She's not a Cake Core. She's the Logic Core," I said.

"What do you mean 'she'? It's obviously got a guys voice," he said.

"It's 'cause she's got a virus, dummy. If you listen really closely, it actually sounds in between a masculine and a feminine voice. Her programming got messed up. That's why she always recites the lethal cake recipe," I explained.

"Oh. That makes sense. Now answer my first question," he demanded.

"I'm going to try to get rid of the virus," I went over to my computer. I had to plug Logic in using a USB cable and pulled up her programming. Then I shut her off. I remembered what would used to happen when the scientists tried to reprogram a Core without turning it off first. It was not fun. Not fun at all. I wasn't trying to completely reprogram her, though. I was just trying to separate the original Logic Core programming from the cake virus. I had looked through Craig's programming, so I would have some idea of what to look for. He was the closest to Logic's programming; they were both intelligence based Cores. The main differences were that Crag could only state specific facts, those facts could be wrong and his ego was much bigger. You could have an intelligent conversation with Logic before the cake virus had infected her software.

I looked through Logic's programming. It looked like I was in for another long night.

After hours of grueling work trying to figure out what coding was what program, I thought I finally had it right. I turned Logic back on.

"What is the square root of pi," I asked

"1.772453850905516027298167483341 etcetera," she said, sounding much more like herself. He voice was back to normal, and she had stopped reciting that horrible cake recipe.

"How are you feeling?"

"I am feeling quite fine, thank you. I am guessing that I am in the section of the facility that had been cut off from the Central Core," she said.

"How do you know that?" I was confused.

"I am the only Core, save the Central Core, who has full access to the databases, I was built to be an adviser to the Central Core before my programming was overridden by the virus that attacked me. By the way, thank you for that," she explained. This was one of the few times that I felt truly proud of myself, another time being when I restarted GLaDOS.

"You're welcome," I said.

**Author's Note: Hello. For anyone who doesn't know, the Intelligence Core, the Logic Core and the Cake Core are all the same Core. I just found out that Ellen McLain voiced Logic, which made me think that Logic was a female based Core. I didn't know this when I wrote any chapters before this with her in them, so I'm sorry for the gender change. I decided to explain the almost male sounding voice with the virus that made Drey reluctant to plug her in earlier. This virus also caused her to endlessly recite a cake recipe. I'm also sorry about the name change. I found on Wikipedia (not the most reliable source, I know) that it's often called the Logic Core, and Logic sounded like a better name than Intelligence. If anybody wants me to go back to using Intelligence as a name, just say so. **

**P.S. I feel like I need to give a reason for Logic being the only Core who can handle the responsibility of the Central Core's position. It is because Logic was originally designed to be an adviser for the Central Core, and if needed, to be able to replace a corrupt Central Core when no other was available. **

**P.P.S. I made up almost all of that. The only actual game canon is that the Core has three names, and that it was voiced by Ellen McLain (she voiced all of the female characters in both games)**


	17. Chapter 17: The Discovery

**Andrea**

Hacking into Mainframe was my new favorite thing to do. Other than talking to Logic. She visited when we weren't testing sometimes. But today I was hacking into Mainframe. I was hoping to find more information on the status of my parental units. Somehow, though, I ended up in the Stasis Log. It was pretty much a record kept on everybody who had ever entered and exited Stasis. I noticed something funny about the number of people in Stasis. There should be none. There were none in Cryo or Long-Term Relaxation, but there was someone in short term relaxation. Unless the Mainframe got something wrong, there was someone else alive in the facility.

"Will, we have to go to Extended Relaxation," I said to him after noting the storage room number and shutting down my computer.

"Why?" he asked.

"If I wanted stupid questions asked, I would've gotten Curiosity," I knew that was harsh, but I was distracted. Will followed me to the Relaxation Center.

"We need to find the Short Term Relaxation. Then I'll input room number 333," I said.

"Why?"

"'cause Mainframe said that there's someone in there. Why else?" I said.

"Did you hack Mainframe again?" Will asked.

"Yep," I said, switching the selection from Long-Term to Short-Term Relaxation. Then, I input room number 333. I hesitated. I knew what to do next, but I didn't now what would happen afterwards. If someone was in Relaxation for too long, it could cause permanent brain damage. Then again, if whoever it was hadn't been there long, there wouldn't even be cognitive deterioration. I pressed the button to disengage the Stasis Lock. Will went down to the door and knocked.

A man answered. He had incredibly messy black hair that seemed to be different lengths in different places. His eyes were light blue and had a crazed look in them. He seemed to have anisocoria, a condition that caused uneven dilation in the pupils of the eyes. I knew for a fact he had schizophrenia, a condition that caused hallucinations.

"Impossible," I said.

**Author's Note: Hello. I just realized how amazingly short his chapter is. Guess who Drey found. Next chapter will be longer. I promise. It may take awhile, though, because I'm working on other stuff as well. **


	18. Chapter 18: The (Sort Of) Confession

**See. I told you guys it would be longer. **

**Andrea**

"Daddy?" I said hesitantly. He didn't seem to see me. I was behind Will.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"The Extended Relaxation Center. What is your name?" Will said. Dad looked at him before answering.

"Douglas Rattmann. You?" he said. That made Will start.

"I'm Will. You said your name was Rattman?"

"Dad," I said, stronger this time. He saw me this time.

"Andrea? Oh my God you're alright," he rushed forward and hugged me harder than an elephant.

"Dad, you're choking me. I can't breathe," a bit too hard.

"Sorry," he said, loosening his grip but still not letting go. "After Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, I thought I'd never see you again."

"I could say the same. I thought you died. Nine years. That's a long time," I said, pulling away. I started to cry. Not tears of sadness but tears of joy. After nine years, nine long years of thinking my father dead, I had my Daddy back. I felt like I was six years old again. Dad pulled me back for another hug.

"It's OK sweetie. Everything is going to be alright. I'm here," he said. I looked into his eyes. His uneven pupils would deter most people, but I had stopped caring long ago.

"I know, I know. I'm just so happy," I said, my tears starting to let up. "We have to get back to the safe room. GLaDOS can't see us there."

"OK," Dad turned to Will. "Where did you come from?"

"Mobility Gel testing. I don't mean to be rude or anything, but from what Andrea said about you, I thought you would be… unstable," Will said.

"I normally am, but what they give you to put you in Relaxation has a very similar chemical makeup to many antipsychotic medications. I won't be this sane for long, though. The voices do not like to be silenced," said Dad.

"Ha, ha. Very- oh, you're serious," he said after seeing the look on my dad's face. We started to go back. When we passed an area near Maintenance, Dad stopped us.

"Wait here for a second," he said. He went into a hole in the wall, the part with no panels. He came back a few minutes later with a Companion Cube strapped to his back in some sort of complicated harness.

"Say 'Hi' to Companion Cube," Dad told us. "She's shy, so don't crowd her."

"Hi, Companion Cube," I said. Will looked at me like I was crazy. "What? I'm just having a bit of fun. I know my Dad's crazy."

We continued on. After a little while, we got back to the safe room.

"This place is safe," I said. "I disconnected it from Mainframe, so GLaDOS can't see, hear or affect anything in here. Except maybe neurotoxin. I'm not sure about that."

"You're sure?" Dad asked.

"Yep. Positive. I hacked it myself," I said.

"You can hack? I thought there was no one else here. Who taught you how to hack?"

"I kind of figured it out by myself. I used to watch you on the computer working, and when my testing group woke up to test, they kind of urged on my interest in computers. They needed a hacker."

"I always knew you were brilliant," Dad smiled. I heard the quiet buzz of electronics that meant Aperture and GLaDOS were coming back online.

"Let's get to the testing chambers," Will said.

"Testing?" Dad asked.

"It was her idea," Will said, pointing to me. We left for the chambers.

**Rattmann**

I had never been so happy in my life. Both of my little girls were all right. Of course one was in Aperture and the other was on the surface with no idea of how to survive, but at least they were alive last I checked.

"Are you going to talk?" I asked Companion Cube. She didn't answer. I guess I was still under the effects of the antipsychotics in the Stasis Fluid. I don't even know what it really is, only that it's similar to most antipsychotics. It's probably given by injection. I waited a few hours.

"Hello Doug," I heard Companion Cube say.

"I was wondering when that would wear off. My pills usually take a full twenty-four hours," I said.

"You seem happy," she said.

"I am. My daughters are both alive and well. I thought Andrea was with the others before, but I never was sure. Now I am," I smiled.

"What are you going to do now? You can leave and try to reunite with Michelle, or you can stay with Andrea," Companion Cube warned.

"I know. I'll probably end up staying here, though. Once the antipsychotics completely wear off, I'll be a paranoid, muttering wreck."

"Don't worry. I can help. You know that," she reassured me.

"You're right. You're the only reason I even keep a sliver of my sanity when I'm not on my meds. I'm going to go to sleep now. I need to be well rested to keep away the monsters in my head," I managed to sleep until Andrea and Will got back. It amazed me how two teenagers had managed to survive on their own in a place that had killed most of the adults around.

"Dad, I need to talk to you. Alone," Andrea said. Will left.

"That doesn't sound good," said Companion Cube.

"Please don't but in on personal conversations," I told Companion Cube. She was helpful but also highly nosey. I put her under one of the blankets.

"Talking to the Cube already? The Stasis Fluid must be weaker than I thought," she joked.

"What did you need to talk to me about?"

"Am I adopted?" she asked. How abrupt.

"I… well… uh…yes, you are adopted," I decided to tell the truth. It wouldn't do me any good to lie to Andrea.

"Why didn't you ever tell me. And who were my birth parents?" she asked. I was getting uncomfortable. This wasn't something I had ever prepared to talk about.

"I never told you because it never came up. What was I supposed to do? Go all like 'Hey, by the way, you're adopted'?"

"Still. It would've been nice to know. What about my birth parents?"

"I don't know who they were," I decided to tell one teensy lie. I wasn't ready to share that. "All I know is that you and Michelle are biological sisters. I'm sorry," I said.

"It's OK. I just really wanted to know if it was true. I saw it in some of the files on the Mainframe and wanted to know more," she looked crestfallen.

I was left with an upset adopted daughter who I had no idea how to comfort.


	19. Chapter 19: Caroline

**GLaDOS**

I needed to think about some things. Mainly being what I did wrong. Logic (my own, not the core) says I didn't do anything wrong, but Caroline says otherwise. She disagrees with almost everything I've done since she was uploaded. She's like Morality. Except she actually succeeded in making me feel something I never wanted to feel. Something I never thought I could feel.

Guilt.

Guilt for killing the scientists. Guilt for killing all of the test subjects who made it to the cake. Guilt for torturing the one who managed to kill me when she so obviously deserved it. I just wished I could delete this torturous voice in my head. I've had plenty, but none have brought me to this. None had ever managed to make me feel anything other than annoyance and frustration.

Caroline was different. She was coded into my programming. Even before she was uploaded, my programming had been designed to combine with her code. I was programmed to be her when the time came. The scientists never knew how hard I would fight back.

Now I have to live with these feelings. How I wished it could all go back to the time when all I felt was hate. All I knew was testing.

Speaking of testing, I needed to get back to that. Ever since Caroline had woken up, the Itch had been overpowering. I didn't just want to test. I needed to test.

**Hello. This is short, I know. I just felt like I needed some more of GLaDOS, and when I got done with the section, it just didn't seem appropriate to add another characters' POV after it. Sorry. The next chapter should be longer. Also sorry if this seems like some sort of I Hate My Life things, because that wasn't what I was aiming for. **


	20. Chapter 20: The Prototype

**Andrea**

"Why can't you just execute the program on your computer?" Will was complaining. He had been complaining since they had gotten down to Old Aperture. "I'm pretty sure GLaDOS is awake and is waiting for us."

"Then she'll have to make do with ATLAS and P-Body. She did that for years quite possibly," I replied.

"Yea, but why do we have to come down here?" he asked.

"I'm hoping we can find a prototype of GLaDOS. She's the only computer on the planet that can run Caroline's program. Unless, of course, we were asleep a lot longer than I thought. Which would really be impossible due to the fact that most of the computers and systems here are still working at maximum efficiency," I said.

"What?"

"The program won't run on any computer except for GLaDOS. It's too complicated. The Aperture scientists probably did that on purpose to keep Black Mesa from stealing her like they stole everything else Aperture worked on." I tried to explain.

"Oh. Gotcha. So you think a prototype of GLaDOS would be able to run the program?" Will said.

"Yes. My plan is flawless," I said. "Well… maybe there are a few holes." I amended as Will glared at me.

"What kind of holes exactly?" I stopped walking.

"Well, um. Since we're looking for a prototype, it might not be an advanced enough version of her to be able to run the program. Also, the program is kind of… weird. Apparently it sends out a signal when someone tries to open it to check whether it's open on anything else. If it is open on anything else, it refuses to open all the way and crashes your computer," I said.

"Wow. Aperture was and is really paranoid. I'm guessing it's also undeletable?" Will asked.

"Only when it's open," we started walking again. I spied a door I had never been through before. "This way looks interesting."

"You're sure we're going the right way?"

"Positive. A large, unexplored section of Old Aperture is this way," I said.

"Most of Old Aperture is large and unexplored," Will commented.

"Yes but the GLaDOS project started recently enough that any work on it would have to be in the top layer. This is the only part of the top layer I haven't explored yet," we kept walking. It was a few hours before we found it, but when we did, I knew. It was big, it was scary, it was hanging from the ceiling and it said GLADOS right on it. I wasn't sure why the A was capitalized.

It looked different from the GLaDOS I knew, though. There was a sphere on the upper part with a black dot on the bottom that looked like an optic pointing down. Below the sphere was a large ring with little bits jutting out from it. The ring had Aperture Science logo and the name GLADOS on it. It was all white, except for the jutting out bits (they were black) and the entire thing was suspended from the ceiling by hundreds of cables, ranging in size from really tiny to as thick around as my waist. Parts of the ring and sphere had black line covering them.

"I think we found it," Will said.

"Really? I hadn't noticed," sarcasm. The perfect remedy for stupidity. I went up onto some catwalks. They were high enough that I could touch the chassis. I ran my hand along the name. GLADOS. With the A capitalized for no reason. I was about to draw my hand away when I felt something go _click _on it, under my fingertips.

And then I heard the unmistakable whirring of a hard drive powering up.

**Chell**

Even though Black Mesa did rescue me from getting killed by the… whatever the monsters were called, I still didn't trust them. Twenty seven years of thinking that Black Mesa was the bad guys doesn't go away just because some seemingly mute guy starts throwing stuff at a monster trying to kill you with a Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator (something else that Black Mesa stole from Aperture).

I really didn't want to go back with those monsters, so I didn't have much choice but to stay with them. Aperture didn't really give instructions for what to do when rescued from murderous monsters by the people who were supposed to be your worst enemies, so I went back to my old standby. I didn't talk. At all. It seemed to work, probably because they already had to deal with one person who either wouldn't or couldn't talk.

A guy called Eli tried to explain everything to me. He said that Black Mesa had accidentally opened an interdimensional rift called the Resonance Cascade and now the Earth had been taken over by a group of aliens called the Combine. The mute man was named Gordon Freeman. I still didn't talk to them. I needed to find a way to get contact with Aperture. I wondered how GLaDOS' facility was all spick and span while the rest of the world was taken over. Then I remembered the tingling feeling I got when I finally passed out of the huge wheat field. Almost like when I passed through an Emancipation Grill.

"Hey. I have some questions for you. Can you write?" Eli said. I nodded. He gave me a piece of paper and a pencil. "So tell us about Aperture. Did it really survive the Resonance Cascade and the Combine?" I sighed. I would never betray Aperture to Black Mesa, but I knew I'd be in for a long conversation.

**Author's Note: Hello. If I got anything wrong about Half-Life, please don't hate me. I have never played it so I have zilch idea of what it's like. Constructive criticism would be appreciated on anything to do with that (and anything else for that matter). I don't like flamers, though, so please no flames. **

**I didn't invent the prototype GLaDOS design. It was actually one of the early concepts by VALVe of what GLaDOS was going to look like, so I thought it would be fitting to use it as a prototype model. If you want to know what it really looks like, look up early GLaDOS concept on Google Images. It should be the first two hits. All of the glowing bits are black because she's turned off... for now. **


	21. Chapter 21: The Fall

**Andrea**

I backed away from the giant robot hanging from the ceiling as fast as my legs would carry me. The electronics slowly lit up one by one. I didn't realize the power up had completed until the top sphere rotated to stare at me. The optic was bright red.

"Hello," the voice was female. It actually sounded a lot like the GLaDOS upstairs except a lot more robotic. "Who are y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-" it started glitching out. I jumped off of the catwalk and landed next to Will.

"When I say run, run," I whispered to Will. Electricity started to jump between the sphere and the ring on the prototype GLADOS. "And don't get shocked."

"It seems the two of you humans have woken me up," she said. This time she sounded less robotic but more… evil. Definitely evil. "I must thank you for that," I could hear barely concealed malice in her voice.

"If we can get to the main facility, we can get out of here," I was still whispering.

"However… wait a second. I don't have access to the Turrets or the Neurotoxin generator. No matter. I can kill you in other ways," GLADOS said. The panels started to move.

"RUN!" I yelled. Will and I bolted. This part of the facility wasn't connected to GLaDOS, so GLADOS could probably control most of it. "If we can get upstairs, we can tell GLaDOS what happened. She'll be able to shut down the prototype. Hopefully," I said while running.

"What are you talking about. I'm GLaDOS," GLADOS said. Wonderful. She didn't even know that she was the prototype. And she had access to the intercom. I started having to shoot Portals left and right, trying to dodge crushers and bottomless pits. We had almost gotten to the elevator when Will fell.

"Will!" I yelled, managing to grab his arm. I was standing on a catwalk leading to the elevator.

"Oh, it looks like I got you," GLADOS said, gleefully. Sheesh, talk about major coding errors. Even GLaDOS didn't get this happy when someone was about to die.

"I'm slipping," Will said. He was indeed slipping. I had grabbed him with my right hand, my weaker hand, and I couldn't grab his arm with the other because of my Portal Device. He slipped even further. I frantically tried to find a place to put down my Portal Device, and my concentration lapsed for just long enough for my grip to loosen momentarily.

"ANNE, HELP!" he said as I let go entirely and nearly went down after him.

"WILL!" I screamed. GLADOS laughed.

"And it'll be you too soon enough," she said.

"Not in a million years," I vowed. I ran as fast as possible towards the elevator. I was a few feet away when I suddenly ran into… ATLAS?

"What the hell are you doing down here?" I asked. ATLAS beeped a bit. I had no idea what he was saying.

"Never mind. Get back in the elevator," I was already moving.

I ran into the elevator. ATLAS tried to follow but ended up tripping over himself in his haste. His weight slamming head-on onto the catwalk was too much for it to support. He fell after Will. At least GLaDOS could get him back easily. I didn't even know if Will survived the fall. I sat down on the floor of the elevator and started crying.

**Will**

I don't know how long I spent unconscious. One minute I was falling to my death, the next I was being prodded by the world's biggest robotic idiot. ATLAS started making electronic beeping noises.

"I'm fine, ATLAS," I didn't know exactly what he was saying, but I got the gist of it. "Where are we?" ATLAS pointed at a sign on the wall. It said Aperture Fixtures.

"Wonderful, we're in the really old bits," these parts had been closed down when Aperture stopped making shower curtains and started making science.

"Have you seen my Gel gun? I'm pretty sure I dropped it when I fell," I started looking around. ATLAS beeped and brought me over to a pile of broken panels. I dug around in it a bit and managed to unearth the gun. Some parts were missing, but it looked useable. I tried it out. It started to spark but worked pretty well other than that.

"Brilliant. I'm stuck in an abandoned shower curtain company with only a babbling, bumbling baboon of a robot and an Aperture Science Mobility Gel Launcher that's threatening to electrocute me. Pretty much a normal day, basically," I said. I guess Anne's habit of being sarcastic all the time was rubbing off on me. "Well, lets not wait around all day. We've got a giant robot to defeat," I motioned towards ATLAS to follow while wondering if the prototype of GLaDOS was vulnerable to paradoxes or not.

Yep, Anne was definitely rubbing off on me.

**GLaDOS**

Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. It didn't help that I was stuck testing with Blue and Orange. The nerve of the humans, just gallivanting off wherever they felt like it.

_Well, you do test them pretty hard, GLaDOS, _Caroline said. And Caroline was still in here. Add that to the feeling of wrongness and my day couldn't get much worse.

"Shut up, Caroline," I said out loud. I vocalized when talking to her on purpose. She had a hard time converting English to Binary Code for some reason.

_Well that wasn't very nice. Without me, you wouldn't exist, _she continued.

"And for that, I'm grateful (sarcasm self-test: complete) but I have testing to do," she took a few minutes translating. I used those few minutes to perform a systems check on Aperture. It seemed there wasn't anything off except for something in Old Aperture. I didn't have much access to that area. I looked harder.

_Will you just listen to me for once? _she was getting frustrated.

"Not reall- uh oh," I had discovered the source of the anomaly.

_Uh oh what? _

"Noth-" my vocal processor shorted out. Of all the times for my programming to get in the way.

_You just tried to lie, didn't you? _Caroline said.

"Maybe. Just leave it be," I didn't want to risk another problem by lying directly. "Blue, please report to the Central AI Chamber immediately. Orange, you will be sent through the single person courses for the time being. I hope they will be simple enough for you to be able to solve them without your partner." at least Rewards/Punishments didn't recognize sarcasm as lying. I sent Blue down to investigate the anomaly.

"I wonder how advanced the prototype me down there is," I said.

_Are you talking to me or to P-Body? Because if you're asking me then, wow, I can't believe you're asking me. The prototype you is defective. That's why it was scrapped. There were several glitches that caused it to… well… let's say it did some not so good things. And it didn't support the programming needed to support me, not that I knew that when we built it, _she said.

"But it would have administrative access to Old Aperture, correct?"

_Yes, why? _she asked.

"Just wondering."

**Author's Note: Hello. Sorry about the Harry Potter reference. It was funny (at least to me). So yea, I decided to have the prototype as GLADOS and the regular as GLaDOS. Really the only difference is that the A is capitalized in the prototype's name. GLADOS is so much like GLaDOS because they're basically the same robot. GLADOS' voice is different because her programming is full of glitches (which actually almost make her more sentient), causing her to be even more homicidal. The prototype also didn't have Caroline or any of the cores. GLaDOS could tell that GLADOS had woken up because Old Aperture is still technically part of the facility, so GLaDOS would at least make some effort to monitor it. Just felt that it needed explanation. **

**P.S. Please, someone, review. Even if it's a flame. I want to know if I'm doing something wrong or not, and I suck at editing my own work without input. Please. I want this fic to be the best it can be. **


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